


The Weirwood on the Volcano: The World of Jaehaerys III Targaryen

by Basileus



Series: Weirwood on the Volcano [2]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-11
Updated: 2014-03-11
Packaged: 2018-01-15 08:46:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1298728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Basileus/pseuds/Basileus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jaehaerys III Targaryen may have succeeded in gaining the Iron Throne, but he still has to cling on for seven decades. History too, cannot be ignored while dealing with a King almost maniacally obsessed with the past.</p><p>This is a series of one-shots about the characters in Westros (from the Weirwood on the Volcano Verse) from the past, present and future (1AL-750AL)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Stranger's Children

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ‘The Stranger loves children as much as the Mother, perhaps even more as they are the first ones he calls when there is famine and war. Even those who live are affected by the call from the other side, so much so that they never remain the same. Live or die, the Stranger affects children far more than any other of the Seven. Perhaps it is because children are so full of life and without life there cannot be death. Nevertheless, there is but one name for all the children whose lives were defined by death-Stranger’s children.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I own nothing.
> 
> So this is the promised series of one shots.
> 
> The first one is a weird one: It is a POV of a dead person. Now, there wasnt any afterlife things in the original fic, it was simply hallucination from poison. This is the alternate-what if? afterlife case.

Aegon wondered how was it that he was able to speak and think in death in a fashion he never could in life. In fact, he was surprised that he remembered his mortal existence so well within moments of being freed from it. Yet there he was, a child of six with the mind of an adult, standing next to his sister of eight, glancing down at the corpses being presented to next king, draped in Lannister red.

_I wanted to throw up, that was not the Mother and Rhaenys I remembered. But that is not a luxury available to the dead. We can just shake our fists and promise revenge that we cannot deliver._

_You will pay Tywin,_ he thought, and a glance at his sister confirmed that she was thinking the same way too. _Grandmother will not let you get away with this._

* * *

 

Yet it seemed like mere moments before Grandmother and Viserys had joined them, along with a little girl who looked like him, but did not speak. Aegon remained silent as Rhaella Targaryen approached them. _She tried, but the Gods defeated us. At least we are together again._ They missed mother, and they had searched for her in vain. _This is only for dragons,_ Daenerys Targaryen-Martell told them with sorrow, _even my children are elsewhere._

_But now we have Grandmother and Viserys. A little aunt too, and I think we should just depart since there is none left to watch over. House Targaryen is no more._

‘Where is your brother, little ones?’, asked Rhaella Targaryen.

Rhaenys looked at him in confusion. ‘Aegon is right here grandmother.’

Rhaella’s eyes widened and her face contorted in rage. ‘DAYNE!’ she screamed and the background changed. They were now on a wheelhouse north, where a woman was nursing a babe. Even though it seemed only a few weeks old, Aegon could see the silver hair on its head.

Rhaella sank to her knees, and for the first time in both his existences did Aegon see her cry. ‘If only I had known,’ she wept ‘I would have fought harder, done all I could.’

_But you did not. And now there is only one person left for us to watch. Let us hope you do not join us too soon, brother._

* * *

 

They were truly ephemeral, they could only see, hear and be silent. Their power had no effect on the world, and there was nothing mortal that they could influence. Viserys left soon, and took his little sister with him. But he and Rhaenys stayed on, and so did Grandmother. Waiting and watching someone grow up.

Aegon often felt conflicted about his brother. Though Jaehaerys did not have the upbringing entitled to a Prince of the Throne, or a King, he was at least alive. Even if he may only be a bastard to the world (and to even him), and may never sit on the Iron Throne, Jaehaerys could grow up, read and learn to play the harp, things that Aegon never got to do. _It is because of you we all died, you and that thrice damned prophecy, and you were not even a Visenya. Mother is dead beacause of you, and Rhae, Viserys and I never got to grown up. Quit being so sad all the time and try to laugh a bit, drive it in more that I will never get to do what you do._

He wondered at times why he even endured this agony. Though he might not have had a body left, the mental pain never left. _Does it make me petty, the way Rhaenys thinks me to be?_ His sister often chastised him for his thoughts, but he simply shrugged her off. _She is just being maternal._

Their Grandmother wasn’t being maternal by any stretch of that word. Revenge was the only purpose of her existence, having left Viserys and Daenerys behind a long time ago. They had stopped coming to the place-between-the-worlds for a long time now, disappointed by their mother’s neglect. _At least your mother is here._ But he couldn’t despise them for that, not when Rhaella Targaryen spent all her time cheering Lord Brynden along, even though Lord Brynden could not hear them. _I was glad when they began speaking with their minds all the time, instead of whispering in the Godswood, for we cannot hear thoughts and she now keeps silent._ Her Grandmother had been ecstatic to see the dragon, leaping up and down and screaming ’It worked! It worked!’. _Was it worth it? Your life and your children’s, for a lizard that he is never going to ride to war?_ He supposed he had another reason to hate his brother now, for living as well as having a dragon instead of for simply living. _No matter how humble you try to be by denying the Throne, I will never forget we lost it just because of you._

Yet he remained, for going on would bring its demons too. Between Rhaegar and Jaehaerys, he would take the latter every time.

* * *

 

The War of the Four Kings happened, and his Grandmother wept every day for what happened to the Seven Kingdoms. _There will be nothing left for my grandson to rule,_ she screamed. Her earlier satisfaction from Robert Baratheon’s death was replaced with fear, of what could happen to her last kin if the Lannisters won the North. For his part, he did not care anymore, he was there simply to observe.

Yet his opinion had to undergo a drastic change on that fateful day, when he noticed his brother jump up from his seat at the dinner table and ran outside. _He was in that warg trance, I wonder what he saw to be affected thus._ Rhaenys was concerned, so he had to follow her, to see their brother heave his dinner up his throat. He would have laughed if it was not for the whisper he had heard from his brother’s mouth ‘ _Aegon’._

That night’s conversation with Bloodraven did not happen through their heads, his brother was apparently too disturbed by what he had seen. Bloodraven had been surprised too, and had enquired what it was.

‘I was in a wolf then, it was a farm. The family had been killed by Clegane’s men, and there was a babe, a little babe, with its head caved in.’

Aegon’s nonexistent blood ran cold has he remembered that scene in the Throne-room sixteen years ago. _He said Aegon.How does he know about that?_

‘You now see what came out of your inaction over the years’

‘Shut up, you had shown me the bodies of my siblings far too many times to talk, Bloodraven.’

 _He did WHAT?_ Rhaenys was shaking next to him, and he agreed with her, despite his conflicting feelings for their brother. That scene haunted both of them for far too long, and subjecting someone else to that for years was not something he could agree with. _Except Tywin, but I doubt he would feel anything._

* * *

 They watched as their brother chose to embrace the Targaryen legacy, after fifteen years of dithering and rode out to battle. Aegon had to admire him for his skills in planning for war- _I would have been glad to have a commander like him._ It was only the moment when King’s Landing fell, that he felt that he could forgive his brother for simply existing and turn to blame fate instead. _Had fortune smiled upon us, we could have grown up together in the Red Keep and managed the realm when our time came._

Yet those thoughts had lasted for bare moments. Jaehaerys had requested to be alone in the Throne room for some time, and everyone had left. He expected his brother to climb up to the seat, _you’ve earned it._ Yet he did not, he merely walked forward to face the empty Throne, and started speaking, seemingly to the metal itself.

‘Were you two here today, I could have yielded without thought. Yet fate has decreed otherwise, and I am the last one left behind. I hope to be half as good as you could have been, Aegon, but I cannot rule with having ghosts ruling over me. So, goodbye till we meet again.’

And Rhaenys was not the only sibling sniffling, as Jaehaerys III Targaryen climbed up and sat down on the Iron Throne, with a determined face that seemed to be wrought in iron. He sat for mere minutes, before rising and walking out and yet there was a certain pattern to his step, regal and dignified but it also seemed like as if he was dragged down by something.

_Rhae was right, I was petty all along. This was not a fate I think he would have wished for either. Time to put the blame where it rests._

* * *

 

They stood before the tourney grounds as they witnessed the end of House Lannister. _Our sincerest thanks._ They were at Baelor’s next, when his name was read out in the list of the Targaryen kings that had preceded the current one, and he felt a stab of gratitude. _A honour that I did not deserve, after all my thoughts._ And they were at the Council meeting where their brother tried to call for peace with the land of their mother, before his hand was tipped by the invasion.

* * *

 

They were next in the victor’s pavilion, seeing their uncle being dragged in chains. The chains were removed at a sharp command from the King, and his Uncle stood up to face his brother. The conversation that followed was truly frightening, and he would have had dismissed it if he had not seen his brother in action in King’s Landing. _He really means it._ He was about to step forward and speak, no matter the fact that no one would hear, when Rhaenys grasped his hands. _He is the King now, and he is doing what he must to preserve the realm. We ought to support him in this venture than pick holes._

 _That is true, he at least knows what needs to be done, while I might have just let all of it fall apart.  
_ So they stood at his side, as adults than children for the first time since they came here, and he could have sworn his uncle had seen them, though it should have been impossible.

* * *

 

The years passed and he watched the realm heal, and even grow-not geographically, but in wealth, health, knowledge. _He made a fine King._  
 _War often does,_ Aegon Dragonsbane had said. Their grandmother had left after Jaehaerys was King, asking them to come with her. They had refused. _The Dragon must have Three Heads._ The only visitors now were the five sons of Rhaenyra Targaryen, who brought their little sister along. Talking with them was a strange way to cope with his issues, and yet Jace was of great help. A first son who died at war, to leave the realm to the fourth son, Jacerys Velaryon understood his problems, and had a century and half to get over his own.  
 _We come to see him rule, and are gladdened that the might of the dragon is no longer diminished,_ said the second Viserys.  
 _Aegon and Viserys made better Kings than I, Luke or Joff would have had_ said Jacerys. _We died at war and they lived through it, they knew the costs and never hesitated to do what was right over doing what was easy._  
You flatter us, Viserys had replied. _Our sons almost destroyed everything we put together._  
That was because you gave all you had to the realm, and left none for yourself, replied Joffrey Velaryon.  
 _When I died I thought it was a great tragedy, that I would just fall without even being able to fight,_ spoke Lucerys, who died at fourteen in the hands of Vhagar. _Having seen Aegon and Viserys try to come to terms with their ghosts was the lesson that I was the one who had it easy. I did not have to see my family die before my mortal eyes, nor be tormented by nightmares or be bow’d by grief._

 _They were right,_ Aegon VI realized. _Jaehaerys deserves pity more than anything else, condemned to rule alone._

* * *

 

The only thought he had felt at Jaehaerys' wedding was joy at seeing his brother happy at last, not the one he and Rhaenys had missed. He celebrated each of his nephews and nieces like his own (and often wished he could shield them from their over-demanding father) and shared his brother’s grief when Sylvia had passed on. She had not waited here, smiling at them and telling that they were the ones he would want to see first when he came over, before passing on.

* * *

 

They stood by him as he handed his dragon over to Aemon and passed the baton to Jaehaera. _A good choice, he made changes that many wished but none dared to implement. No matter how they remember him in future, to me he will always be the greatest King that ever was._ They were by his side as he swallowed the wine he had filled with poison, and they came to greet him to the other side.

His eyes had widened on seeing them, and the way he ran removed any doubts Aegon might have had about his brother’s feelings. He saw his brother shed the black in favour of blue, just before their bodies collided and they held each other together, laughing.

‘Welcome, brother,’ chirped Rhaenys.

‘Rhaenys, Aegon, is it really you,’ he spoke, wonder clear in his now six year old face.

‘Yes, it is us, Rhae and Egg, Jon, and now we can finally be together.’

The joy on his face was worth the ninety three years he had spent here waiting. _Time to move on._

‘But if you are here, and I am here, that means _he_ is here too.’

Aegon had to grab his hands. ‘Dead or not, you are not doing anything stupid.’

‘But he—‘

‘The dragon has three heads, dear brother. And I think it is time we all paid a visit together to our dear father. A three pronged attack like the one you used on King’s Landing,’ finished Rhaenys.

A devilish smile appeared on Jon’s face, that would have scared Egg badly had he suspected he was a possible target for whatever his brother was planning.

‘I hope you were not twiddling your thumbs all this time, and actually have concrete information for me to plan properly.’

_We do not brother, but we soon will. After all, we have eternity ahead of us._

_To make Rhaegar Targaryen suffer._


	2. An Appointment in Samarra

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An old prophecy catches up with Cersei Lannister.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I own nothing.  
> Comments/Kudos welcome!  
> The title comes from an old Arab story, given below.
> 
> "The Appointment in Samarra"  
> (as retold by W. Somerset Maugham [1933]) 
> 
> There was a merchant in Bagdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, Master, just now when I was in the marketplace I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me. She looked at me and made a threatening gesture, now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate. I will go to Samarra and there Death will not find me. The merchant lent him his horse, and the servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went. Then the merchant went down to the marketplace and he saw Death standing in the crowd and he came to her and said, Why did you make a threating gesture to my servant when you saw him this morning? That was not a threatening gesture, Death said, it was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Bagdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.

_"When will I wed the prince?" she asked._   
_"Never. You will wed the king."_   
_"I will be queen, though?" asked the younger her._   
_"Aye." Malice gleamed in Maggy’s yellow eyes. "Queen you shall be . . . until the wolves come, to cast you down and take all that you hold dear."_   
_"Will the king and I have children?" she asked._   
_"Oh, aye. Six-and-ten for him, and three for you."_   
_The old woman was not done with her, however. "Gold shall be their crowns and red their shrouds," she said. "And when you think you have won it all, the Dragon Prince shall come."_   
_“The Dragon Prince? Will he ride a dragon, just like in my dreams?”_   
_“Aye but too young for you to wed, with the same blood as the Old King and Queen Alyssanne. And with his arrival, it shall rain.”_   
_“Rain?”_   
_“Aye, it shall rain Fire and Blood!”_

Cersei nearly leapt up from her bed as she awoke. _It is a dream and nothing more_ , she told herself to steady her heart. _Except it had truly happened once; Melara died as the witch had said, and the worms did have her maidenhead._

_All of what she had said came true, except for the last. The wolves are gone, Robb Stark has been defeated and his brothers are dead. Except the bastard, but that changes nothing. And the dragons are gone too, the Last Queen had seen to it. Only snakes remain, in the deserts of Dorne and in the Seas._

_Let the Martells and Velaryons try what they would with their drops of dragonblood, we lions will be victorious in the end. Even Aerys had died._ She wished Jaime was here, she was sure she would not have felt this lonely if he was here, in bed with her. _I wish he could attend his son’s marriage, but the date cannot be moved._ It had to be the three hundredth anniversary of Aegon’s landing, the better to cement the legacy that it was Aegon’s bastard brother’s line that ruled.

 _Even in death the dragons defy us._ She was still envious of Rhaella Targaryen, who had not needed a man to fight for her. _I thought her to be a simple woman, a great Queen maybe but ultimately just another lady, while I switched clothes with Jaime and played swords._ Her mother had been right all along, when she had told Cersei to respect her friend the Queen, while her father was Hand and they lived in the City. Joanna Lannister had perhaps been the only one to have seen the fire in the Last Queen, which the rest of the world only saw in her funeral pyre. _Robert Baratheon brought low and his heir killed, by a woman with child. How I wish I could have humiliated him thus before the smallfolk._

 _But she is dead, while you live,_ another voice spoke in her head, and yet that could not change the direction her thoughts were headed. _Dead, and a saint, that many in the Reach still privately kneel before._ The Targaryen’s had been the defenders of the Faith since the Old King, and the death of Rhaella and her son had nearly provoked a second uprising by the Faith, who had turned a blind eye to Aerys’s end. Lord Arryn had stopped it with difficulty, and it took varied tactics like letting Rhaella be sanctified, while hanging the leader of the movement, Ser Bonnifer Hasty. _She is a god to the smallfolk, and I am just a Queen._ Even Lyanna Stark and Elia Martell had greater legacies, and their brothers had torn the realm apart for them. _No one forgets that the war fought over the wolf-bitch and the Dornish will always remember their martyred Princess._

_The good that men do lives after them, while the evil is oft buried with their bones. Same with women I suppose, the dead are in an exalted position where none can reach._

_Nevertheless, I have won,_ she thought as she saw the sun rise slowly. _Their lines are dead while my son is King. His reign will be secured by this marriage._

She supposed she would better prepare for going to Baelor’s as her future gooddaughter wanted. A show of piety never hurt, and besides it could be used to further humiliate the Stark girl. _My goodsister is not the wolf I should fear._

* * *

 

She waited in Baelor with all the other women, under guard from Olenna Tyrell’s knights. _I should have known those Tyrell’s would sell us!_ Yet rage was quickly replaced by fear for what was to come, as the witch’s prophecy rang in her mind.

 _When I was younger, I dreamed of Rhaegar and I riding on a dragon like the Old King and Queen Alyssane. I thought the prophecy meant I would wed Rhaegar when he was King and have children who would be Kings. When I reached my apex, my son would prove me wrong by hatching a dragon, and taking me to glory._ But, no that had not been it. _The wolves-for it must be Lyanna Stark’s son-have come for me after all._

* * *

 

She had known that she would die, and had proudly walked into the tourney grounds. _Let the world see me burn in dragonfire, as what else could Fire and Blood be? My legacy will be the same as that of Rhaenyra Targaryen, the Mother of Kings._

Yet the dragon was nowhere to be seen, and her eyes widened when she saw behind the bars of the enclosure, behind which their executioner awaited. _Dogs?_

‘And now, the sentence served to House Lannister for murdering my brother and sister, along with Princess Elia,’ announced Jaehaerys Targaryen.

The musicians began playing _The Rains of Castamere_ that very moment, and she felt her eyes widen as she realized their fate. _The wolves have come after all, and it will rain blood today._

She was far more dispassionate than a mother should be, as the starving dogs attacked her family. _And so it ends. I do not die a Lyanna Stark or Elia Martell or Rhaella Targaryen. I am even denied the dignity Rhaenyra got. My legacy is the same as Eleyne Tarbeck’s in the end, to be forgotten save as a footnote in history._

She felt a large creature knock her off her feet, and it was on top of her, savage yellow eyes meeting her green. For a moment she remembered Jaime’s eyes in that exact same position countless times before, but the jaws that bit her throat did not do so for love.

She lay on the ground; abandoned, slowly bleeding out of her ripped throat, in the red shroud of her own blood, and she heard the words clearly:

‘ _And so he spoke, and so he spoke,_  
 _that lord of Castamere_ ,  
 _But now the rains weep o'er his hall,_  
 _with no one there to hear.’_

_And there is no one left to hear._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bonnifer Hasty was in love with Rhaella and she returned the affections (pure Canon). After realizing it could never be, he chose the Seven (again canon). He goes up against the crown for her (as she dies a martyr, not at childbirth).


End file.
